Wet weather champions Southbroom reign again
Southbroom have now won it five times since 2010 with Gavin Sole the common denominator every time.
The worse the weather, the better. That seems to be what suits Southbroom Golf Club’s A team at KZN Interclub as they showed once again last weekend.
At the end of a very tough three days, Gavin Sole, his son Graham, and Jean-Marc Bouic could claim bragging rights and lift the trophy.
Southbroom won it at Selborne Park two years ago, also in the rain, but lost in the final to Durban Country Club at San Lameer CC last year, in pleasant weather.
The two qualifying rounds were played at Selborne Park and Umkomaas golf clubs. The matchplay was held at Umdoni Park.
On all three days it either rained, howled – or did both. And throw in some lightning, just to make it a bit scary as well.
As a result scores were not great, and Southbroom kept the damage to a limit to qualify in third place, behind Kloof and Royal Durban.
They took on Royal Durban in the semi-finals, who they beat in the final in 2021, and won 2-1. Graham lost to Kuven Nadrajah, Gavin beat Ashwin Krishen and Jean-Marc beat Kushal Bugareth.
In the final they played leading qualifiers Kloof, who had beaten Umkomaas in the other semi-final.
With the wind seemingly incensed by the Springboks’ World Cup win the night before, it screamed in from the south-west louder than an unhappy All Blacks’ fan.
“It was pumping. The par five 10th hole was most definitely a three-shot hole. From 105m, guys were hitting 7-irons!” said Jean-Marc.
This probably suited Southbroom.
Graham lost to Michael Sim, Gavin beat Gareth Atkinson and Jean-Marc pulled off the win of the weekend with a resounding 5/4 victory over Ruben van den Berg, who played number two for KZN at last month’s IPT.
“We just had to adjust our games. Was bit miserable today, very wet and windy. I played nicely,” said Jean-Marc, in possibly the understatement of the year.
Gavin was pleased to have won it with his son in the team.
Has there ever been a father-son combination to win Interclub? Yes, of course – Ivan and Andrew Curlewis, back when it was still played as a four-man team in the A division.
They won it at Margate CC, also on a very windy day, beating a strong Howick team in the final.
In fact, that was the win that gave Southbroom the belief they could also win against the top Durban clubs.
Southbroom have now won it five times since 2010 with Gavin Sole the common denominator every time.
The irony is that they have never won it at Southbroom.
Wins came at San Lameer (2010), Margate (2012 and 2014) and Selborne Park (2021) and now Umdoni Park (2023).
Umkomaas won the Frogs and Senior Frogs divisions. Ethekweni won the B division.
HAVE YOUR SAY
Like the South Coast Herald’s Facebook page, follow us on Twitter and Instagram
